Crackdown on uninsured drivers has mixed results

Crackdown on drivers has mixed results, analysis finds

John Sisk (left) and his son John Ross Sisk of John Sisk Auctioneers work at the Corpus Christi police auction. Police have stepped up enforcement of driving without insurance, including towing some cars that can be auctioned if owners don't pick them up.

Buyers gather around a 2002 Cadillac at the latest Corpus Christi police auction June 4. Since January, police have stepped up enforcement of driving without insurance, including towing some cars that can end up auctioned. The stepped-up enforcement has led to fewer wrecks involving uninsured drivers but hasn't deterred many repeat offenders, a Caller-Times analysis found.

Bill Olive

The Corpus Christi Police Department now holds monthly auctions at its impound lot on Holly Road, in part to clear more impound space for cars towed because of lack of insurance. The latest auction June 4 included 105 cars, 42 of which had been impounded for lack of insurance.

Bill Olive

CORPUS CHRISTI - The Police Department's crackdown on uninsured drivers hasn't pulled repeat offenders off the streets or prompted more of them to pay their fines, a Caller-Times analysis found.

But regular roadside checkups on drivers' insurance policies have forced some who were driving without insurance to sign up for a policy, at least temporarily.

"I'm not saying this is a perfect solution," Corpus Christi Police Chief Troy Riggs said. "It's a good beginning."

Police plan to evaluate the program's progress at the end of this month. So far, police say it has reduced the percentage of car wrecks involving uninsured drivers but hasn't solved the problem of uninsured drivers on Corpus Christi roads, one of the top complaints residents report to police.

Some drivers still ignore the law. In the five months since police stepped up enforcement, six drivers were ticketed three times for driving without insurance, and 62 drivers were ticketed twice, according to police data. More than 50 of this year's repeat offenders also had tickets in 2010.

State law mandates a fine of $175 to $350 the first time someone is found driving without insurance. For the second offense or more, that fine increases to $350 to $1,000.

Among those ticketed between January and May, at least 17.6 percent of offenders had been ticketed twice before, and at least 9 percent had been ticketed once before, according to court data. They all face fines of at least $600, and more than 100 people face fines of more than $1,300.

Police want to develop a plan to further deter repeat offenders.

That could involve asking the City Council to pass a new ordinance heightening penalties for repeat offenders or forcing automatic tows for drivers who have been cited before.

Past problems with uninsured driving enforcement have been corrected.

Last year a Caller-Times article detailed the ways drivers were getting away with driving without insurance, including a problem between the municipal court's warrant system that made it difficult for police officers to tell if people they pulled over had municipal court warrants. That has been corrected, police and municipal court officials said.

The municipal court also corrected a problem that let habitual offenders out of steeper fines.

In 2009 a Caller-Times report called attention to the court mistakenly treating each citation for driving without insurance as a first offense instead of upgrading charges as the law requires. A computer system upgrade changed that so charges now are automatically upgraded if the driver has a past citation for driving without insurance.

"There are those people who will drive no matter what, without insurance and without a driver license," Corpus Christi Municipal Court Director Rene Mendiola said. "We've tried to reduce it, but it hasn't gone away."

Fewer tickets

In January police stepped up enforcement of uninsured driving by setting up random checkpoints for insurance and towing uninsured cars.

The first week of the year, those checkpoints were held daily throughout the city. Police captains continue to select random days for their officers to conduct checkpoints, normally about 10 times a month, Riggs said.

Despite the increased enforcement, the number of drivers ticketed for driving without insurance went down by 49 percent during the first four months of the campaign, compared with the same period in 2010. Police aren't sure why, except that the department has fewer patrol officers than last year because of retirements.

Police also didn't tow every uninsured vehicle ticketed. Fewer than one in three motorists ticketed for driving without insurance had their car impounded.

The department's policy for the stepped-up enforcement mandated that any uninsured car involved in a wreck be automatically towed to the police department's impound lot. Drivers police pulled over and found without insurance more often were ticketed and not towed.

The police department's overcrowded impound lot played a role in that, Riggs said.

The police department's impound lot can hold 575 cars, not only those towed for insurance reasons, but those seized during other crimes such as drug raids.

About one in five cars police impounded since January were for lack of insurance. That's a dramatic jump from a year ago, when police said only about 4 percent of cars were impounded for insurance reasons.

Towing could happen more frequently later this year. The city approved a plan to build a new impound lot and keep the current one, doubling capacity for towed cars, but the June completion date for that construction project was pushed back to August.

To combat overcrowding, the police department began auctioning off cars monthly instead of quarterly. Police said about three-fourths of the people whose cars were impounded for lack of insurance pick up their cars after showing proof of insurance, and others could be auctioned. The latest auction June 4 included 42 of 105 cars that had been impounded for lack of insurance.

Improvements

After five months of enforcement, police say they think fewer uninsured drivers are on the streets, pointing both to anecdotal evidence from officers and insurance companies and the rate of uninsured cars involved in accidents.

Insurance checkpoints conducted at the beginning of the year often would find 10 to 15 cars without insurance but recently have turned up only one or two cars, Riggs said.

From May to December 2010, between 19 percent and 24 percent of vehicle wrecks involved a car without insurance. After the enforcement period began in January, that rate dropped to between 13 percent and 16 percent.

"What this tells me, with our accident rates being up a little, is that more people are driving with insurance," Riggs said.

State insurance data hasn't shown a drop in the rates yet. The Texas Department of Insurance tracks how many vehicles are registered in each county and calculates how many have active insurance policies by matching vehicle identification numbers. During the department's last snapshot, on Feb. 28, 23.8 percent of Nueces County vehicles were uninsured. In February 2010, the department reported 22.7 percent of cars were uninsured, slightly fewer.

Riggs said all those uninsured cars might not be on the road, especially with the increased enforcement.

Towing, court fees

The new policies have brought an extra $25,000 a month to the police department, a police analysis found. That money, collected from towing, storage and impound fees, this month reached a level to offset the department's costs for buying a new tow truck.

"It's not like we're getting rich off this," Riggs said. "It's not a revenue enhancer. It's about enhancing the quality of life."

Unlike police, the city's municipal court hasn't seen extra income from the campaign.

Between Jan. 1 and May 25, the court collected more than $260,000 in fines related to uninsured driving of the $1.1 million in tickets police wrote.

During the same time period last year, before the enforcement campaign, the court collected more than $775,000 of a potential $1.3 million.

It appears more people paid last year because those on payment plans in 2010 had a chance to pay off their bills, so the percentage paying their fines should increase over time, Mendiola said.

Court officials note that the total fines due aren't legally owed until the person makes an appearance before a judge and the judge assesses the fine. A fine is considered delinquent after 60 days, sent to collections and a warrant is issued. The court doesn't count that money as due to the court because if the offender appears, he or she still could plead not guilty or request community service.

More drivers who show up to municipal court are requesting payment plans than in years past, and the courts now allow offenders to pay off their fines $50 at a time instead of $500 at a time, Mendiola said.

"We are getting more people to resolve their cases than before," Mendiola said. "So many people are eligible for and ask for payment plans. More resolution doesn't mean more money."